For those of us who love to cook, Thanksgiving is one of the ultimate ironies. While on the one hand you get to cook a bunch of delicious food for your family and friends, on the other hand you have to plan the whole meal, cook the whole meal, please everyone, and deal with everyone asking if you need help and doing it wrong when you let them. If you don’t cook Thanksgiving dinner, you should humble yourself by recognizing what your angels in the kitchen go through; and if you do, I see you.
1. Excitement
As you sit down to plan your Thanksgiving dinner, you start to get giddy thinking about how good the food is going to be, seeing all the people who you’re eating with, and even thinking about how fun it is going to be to cook! You start coming up with extravagant dishes and table settings. Maybe you decide you’re going to DIY half of the decorations and create a soundscape for dinner. Maybe you’ll try molecular gastronomy!! The world is your oyster!
2. Dread
…and then you get to the store. And you have to go through the aisles and pick out every ingredient. You realize how much things are going to cost – or maybe you see that your key ingredient is completely out of stock. You start to understand how difficult and time-consuming this meal is going to be. It finally sinks in that this is the choice you’ve made, and there’s no going back.
3. Rage
You are mad at everyone. At yourself, at the people in the house with you, at the people who are coming over in a few hours, at the food, at your oven, at the fact that you do not have a Chrissy Teigen-style kitchen. You’re cooking (and sweating) covered in flour and scraps and probably a few burn pads slapped on, and you are pissed and don’t even care if anything gets done on time because it serves all of the people on their way right for making you do this.
4. Panic
Then everyone arrives. And they’re asking you for help and asking what’s for dinner and running around your kitchen and smelling everything and talking to each other and commenting on your decorations and you feel pure, white panic. Will they like what you’ve cooked? Is anything burnt? IS ANYTHING UNDERCOOKED? Will everything be done on time? Have I forgotten everything? Is everyone going to get along? Will there be any arguments? Who’s going to start crying first? Am I going to start crying?? (yes, the answer is always yes).
5. Pride
Finally, it’s time to eat. Everything is on the table, and everyone is sitting down and digging in. You start the meal by looking around and checking everyone’s face to see their reactions, and once they start complimenting your food, asking for seconds, asking for someone to pass the dishes around, and joking with the person beside them or across the table, you start to relax. And there’s a moment of silence as everyone really starts to eat, and in that moment you feel undeniably at ease. You take a bite of your food, sit back, and smile at the loved ones at your table, and admire the food you made.